To feel uncomfortable about gender representation in kids toys?

[stereeotype]

I was looking for a birthday gift and have to say the shopping made me feel...slightly uncomfortable on how badly the toy options played into gender stereotypes. I haven't looked for a kids present for years as I don't have children, but I think I'd be frustrated if I did!

I would go as far as to say I found it disturbing. There was relatively little of use in the 'pink' section and nothing but practical/technical learning material amongst the boys.

Now I appreciate you don't have to buy girls toys for girls and boys for boys - but a girl is likely going to assume she subconsciously wants the girls toys as there are pictures of girls all over the boxes so likely to veer towards those.

Also, why can't the girl section appear girly but the actual toy still be of use, not just a dolls head for hairdressing or a kitchen for cooking?

Can't believe it's 2021 and we are still dealing with this.

This is that experiment

The whole documentary is on utube , it was on bbc called 'no more boys and girls'

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why the planet is fucked. It really annoys me that the 'Woke' generation spend so much time prioritising and obsessing over relatively trivial matters when the world is collapsing around us.

OP, you might find it 'disturbing' that there are aisles of gender stereotyped toys. I find it far more disturbing that we're pumping raw sewage into the rivers, filling the seas with plastic, allowing China to get away with multiple human and animal rights abuses..

I say to you OP, ignore the stereotyping and buy whatever YOU think is suitable for a child. For what it's worth, I was a child in the 60's. My mum never considered what she 'should' be buying me. I had Barbie dolls, Tiny Tears, a mini cooker but I also had Corgi model cars, a Lego petrol station, a Chopper bike, dinosaurs and a microscope set! I had the 'unisex' toys like jigsaws, roller skates and painting sets.

I played with dolls and girlie things but the brainwashing must have failed with me as I've never married or had kids .

I don't think there is a correlation between lack of interest in science and traditional girls' toys. All my classmates had gender stereotyped toys but one grew up to be a pharmacist, several became doctors, another a biologist.....

I think that @chickychoccyegg makes some good points. I would agree though that there is way too much bloody pink around for girls. Far more than in my childhood

This is really shocking stuff but one can be concerned about all the things u mentioned Pandora and stereotyping of childrens toys at the same time 🤯 they dont cancel each other out!

Amazingly enough, the "woke generation" (though I'm nowhere near young enough to be in that) are capable of caring about more than one issue at any given point in time. It's not the environment or genderised toys, or human rights or genderised toys - we're perfectly able to care about multiple issues at once.

I’m actually also annoyed at all the ‘gifts for her’ and ‘gifts for him’ sections in the Xmas catalogues. It’s not woke to just appreciate how much we are forced along societal expectation lines.
Yes I'm going to be delighted with the gift pack of aftershave for Christmas.
After all there can't possibly be any gifts that are more suitable for men than women or the other way round.

I do realise that @Newrunner29 but it seems people are absolutely obsessing, 'sweating the small stuff'. Topics like this consume a disproportionate amount of time and discussion generally. I just wish people would put as much focus and energy into the big stuff. Girls now have far more opportunities than I had and I don't think playing with dolls is going to spoil that.

@PandoraRocks

I do realise that *@Newrunner29* but it seems people are absolutely obsessing, 'sweating the small stuff'. Topics like this consume a disproportionate amount of time and discussion generally. I just wish people would put as much focus and energy into the big stuff. Girls now have far more opportunities than I had and I don't think playing with dolls is going to spoil that.

But thats just such a whataboutism, gender roles is not small stuff. Its about challenging stereotypial things. Girls now have more because stereotyping was challenged. Girls have every right to play with dolls and ive never said they shouldn't , im just saying they could play with any toy and so could boys

You misunderstand. The small stuff is worrying specifically about toys, not gender roles in general. Girls now have far more because of the achievements of the Feminist movement which focused on the real inequalities - equal pay, access to education and contraception etc.

@PandoraRocks

You misunderstand. The small stuff is worrying specifically about toys, not gender roles in general. Girls now have far more because of the achievements of the Feminist movement which focused on the real inequalities - equal pay, access to education and contraception etc.

I dont feel its a misunderstanding, if the 'small stuff ' around toys is worrying why did u come on to this topic and say that people are disproportionately using time to discuss this when we should be conerned about global issues . 🤔 if u feel people need to discuss global issues create ur own thread about it, i would suggest.

@PandoraRocks

You misunderstand. The small stuff is worrying specifically about toys, not gender roles in general. Girls now have far more because of the achievements of the Feminist movement which focused on the real inequalities - equal pay, access to education and contraception etc.

But don't you think the "real inequalities" start with inequality in childhood? With differences in in toys and clothing? Right from the beginning, people have stereotyped expectations of girls and boys which affect the way they behave and cannot help but influence the children themselves. Inequality in childhood leads to inequality in education, which filters into the job market and positions of power.

Cognitive bias means that you're never going to be able to make people fully embrace equality. However much they're on board with the concept rationally, there's always that unconscious bias that says 'this man will be better suited to this job than this woman', 'this home task is a woman's job'. It must start with the "small stuff", with children themselves.

I'm disappointed that lego aimed at girls isn't really building things whereas boys nearly always is. So they learn to handle and manipulate small objects from a very young age, read the instructions, have the satisfaction of building something.
Girls get to pretend play a scientist or a hairdresser - with pink trimmings.
I had a girl who used duplo and lego to build houses - that wasn't very scifi or techinical but still required the same skills as boy centred lego.
Son built tractors and planes at the same age.

Yes products that are similar will be displayed together - so Barbie and Steffi dolls will be next to each other with the other fashion dolls like Rainbow High etc

In a pink section of the shop, with pink shelves and floor tiles, in pink boxes with pictures of girls on and a catalogue showing girls playing with them. So obviously aimed at girls. A boy wanting to buy a Barbie would be put off by the fact that they're so clearly aimed at girls.

Children don't think pink = girl, blue = boy or car = boy, doll = girl etc unless an adult puts this idea into their head. If an adult never said this concept children wouldn't even think about it.
But pictures and adverts of girls playing exclusively with dolls is an adult putting the concept in their heads. Not me, but some adult somewhere has decided to give them that idea.

Look around you! Look at nature
Yes I love to see gender stereotypes in nature. Just the other day I was watching a hedgehog in the garden and I was so glad that it was wearing a little pink hat so that I knew it was a female hedgehog, otherwise how on earth would I know!?

Yanbu! Can anyone else see an advert for spectacular science baking kits next to this thread? Black boxes with male scientists on the box, so even though no-one has told me in words - I know that it is a baking set for boys to use.

Colours and pictures carry meaning too. Think of colours used for Halloween and those used for Christmas. I could buy unlabeled seasonal items (like tablecloths which could be used at any time) and I would still know what celebration it was for. The images on packaging are carefully chosen to sell as much overall for the companies.

I've noticed that how obvious the marketing is can vary shop by shop. And personally I think gendered toys do matter because they can lead to practicing the same skill repeatedly and not having as much practice in other areas. Eg. Craft kits can help develop fine motor skills. This is important. Gross motor skills are also important and craft kits can be less good at developing these.

@MargaretThursday

I’m actually also annoyed at all the ‘gifts for her’ and ‘gifts for him’ sections in the Xmas catalogues. It’s not woke to just appreciate how much we are forced along societal expectation lines. Yes I'm going to be delighted with the gift pack of aftershave for Christmas. After all there can't possibly be any gifts that are more suitable for men than women or the other way round.

But aside from gifts which are specifically serving a purpose for men e.g. a facial razor, or women e.g. tampons, why is there any need to separate them?

Why can't a woman wear aftershave, how is it different to perfume? Why do we need "mens" and "womens" shower gel, toothbrushes, deodorant, books, tools, keyrings? Why are candles exclusively gifts "for women" and Swiss army knives "for men". It just doesn't make any logical sense apart from that those have been the traditional genders who would be given those items.

@DockOTheBay

Yes products that are similar will be displayed together - so Barbie and Steffi dolls will be next to each other with the other fashion dolls like Rainbow High etc

In a pink section of the shop, with pink shelves and floor tiles, in pink boxes with pictures of girls on and a catalogue showing girls playing with them. So obviously aimed at girls. A boy wanting to buy a Barbie would be put off by the fact that they're so clearly aimed at girls.

I always find the attitudes on these threads really disingenuous with the faux "there are no boy aisles or girl aisles" Yes there is no sign above saying so but the way they are laid out clearly indicates what is going on. I was in Asda yesterday a double aisle of toys I presume the Lego, cars, construction, action figures on one side and the dolls, pretend play, Barbie, pink packaging on the other was purely just a coincidence?

The whole "I'm so enlightened I just see toys" is ridiculous.

Oh and to a pp who was saying their Tesco only has one single aisle of toys mine has two double aisles plus a back wall section, they are clearly laid out to gravitate children to one aisle or the other.

It was a wooden vacuum but okay... Do you need a cup of tea?

To be "uncomfortable" is just a bit of an over reaction isn't it?

I have a boy/girl twins so it's been interesting watching them develop. My boy likes to bang and bash things my girl is much gentler and prefers dolls etc. all the toys are in one toy box so I don't separate them pink and blue they choose what they want....they naturally gravitate towards different things 🤷🏻‍♀️

“The "boys" toys are challenging and interesting and the "girls" toys are unbelievably boring and sit pretty, very stereotypical, ie hoover, kitchen etc.”

I don’t think a toy kitchen is a ‘boring toy’ and that says more about you tbh. I’ve seen a toy kitchen in every toddler child I’ve ever been to girl or boy and it has been one of the most versatile toys in our house. It has been a cafe, vets, prison etc.

There seems to be an implicit thing on this thread that building toys = worthy and imaginary play toys less so. I think that is a mistake.

It's partly why we're in such a mess with the trans issue. Overly gender toys, and girls who don't like the pink sparkles are told they're boys; boys who don't like trucks are told they're girls.

Pure capitalism-driven idiocy.

It's not just in shops. The Playmobil catalogue has a blue section (contains the knight, police, space, dinosaur and car sets etc) and a pink section (with the houses, pets and school sets etc). Because obviously boys don't live in houses and girls don't go into space or drive cars 🙈🙈

@Chickychoccyegg

I find toy shops (eg smyths and the entertainer ) don't have girl and boy sections these days, it's usually games, construction, experiments, usually quite a large doll section with only pink signage used for barbie as her colour is pink, small world play, train tracks, never seen a pink sparkley dinosaur. I have 3 kids, who have all had very different interests over the years,i run a toddler group and a rainbows group and have worked in nurseries for years, so lots of experience buying and playing with toys. Children play with toys, literally any toy available to them, you don't need to stick to traditionally girls or boys toys, there's really no such thing, especially now. Also, every single toy has some educational value to the child playing with it, I also don't like the way people are dismissive about toys that are pink/traditionally marketed for girls, such as kitchens, hoovers, tills, Princess dress up, they all have so much value to the children playing with them.

The last time I was in Smyths I was horrified to find the aisles were literally blue or pink (and a lot of the toys in the pink section were "sexualised" eg the new my little ponies with huge eyes, lol dolls etc).

Yusanaim what Lego Friends sets have you seen that take less building than other Lego sets?
I have literally just rebuilt Friends set Emma's Fashion Shop - 343 pieces at £24.99 and the Creator 3 in 1 Campervan - 379 pieces also at £24.99.
A difference of 36 pieces.
The Friends one has some clever building features like making a corner door and fancy window effects. It's a beautiful build.

@tiggerwhocamefortea

To be "uncomfortable" is just a bit of an over reaction isn't it?

I have a boy/girl twins so it's been interesting watching them develop. My boy likes to bang and bash things my girl is much gentler and prefers dolls etc. all the toys are in one toy box so I don't separate them pink and blue they choose what they want....they naturally gravitate towards different things 🤷🏻‍♀️

And that's fine, when there's a box and every child can choose what they want to play with. But when the toys aimed at girls - ie the ones with girls shown playing with it and often pink/purple (let's not pretend colour coding doesn't exist) - are housework equipment, dolls and tea sets, and the toys aimed at (showing) boys are cars and trucks and building toys then it removes the element of choice. And then we run into a problem.

All toys (and clothes!) should be for all kids, and should be marketed as such. All marketing should show a boy and a girl playing together playing equally. A small change that might just make a difference.